The task
Assume that today's date is 5 November 2026. Mr Kotecha has returned home following today's vestibular assessment. Allow 5 minutes for reading and 40 minutes for writing.
This is an original independent practice task. You are the doctor who reviewed Mr Dipesh Kotecha today. With his consent, write a letter to his partner, Ms Paige Lahiffe, explaining the documented home-support and review plan, including when further assessment is needed. Address the letter to Ms Paige Lahiffe, Flat 2, 14 Cedar Road, SW1V 2AB, United Kingdom. In your answer: expand the relevant notes into complete sentences; do not use note form; use letter format. The body of the letter should be approximately 180–200 words.
Length: the body of the letter should be about 180–200 words. You have 45 minutes in the test: 5 minutes to read, 40 to write. Letter type: Advice letter.
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Which case notes belong in this letter?
Vestibular neuritis recovery: advice
This is an original independent practice task. You are the doctor who reviewed Mr Dipesh Kotecha today. With his consent, write a letter to his partner, Ms Paige Lahiffe, explaining the documented home-support and review plan, including when further assessment is needed. Address the letter to Ms Paige Lahiffe, Flat 2, 14 Cedar Road, SW1V 2AB, United Kingdom. In your answer: expand the relevant notes into complete sentences; do not use note form; use letter format. The body of the letter should be approximately 180–200 words.
Mark every line: Include keeps the specific detail; Compress keeps the relevant gist in fewer words; Omit leaves it out. Then compare your choices with our reviewed analysis. Some choices are optional.
Download practice checklist (PDF)
One-page worksheet. Answers and reasons are on the linked webpage, so you can practise before checking.
Case notes
Patient details
- Patient: Mr Dipesh Kotecha
- DOB: 14/03/1982 (44 yrs)
- Address: Flat 2, 14 Cedar Road, SW1V 2AB, United Kingdom
- Consents to written advice for partner, Ms Paige Lahiffe
Social background
- Lives with partner; normally independent
- Partner working from home this week; available for walks
- Less confident outdoors since illness; worried about falling
- Enjoys collecting vintage postcards
- Partner complained receptionist was unfriendly
Medical history
- Remote ankle sprain; fully recovered
- No regular medicines before current illness
- No known drug allergies
Assessment and progress
- 31/10: sudden continuous spinning, nausea/vomiting following a cold
- 01/11: hospital assessment; no focal neurological deficit documented
- Diagnosis: vestibular neuritis; no hearing loss or tinnitus
- 05/11: vomiting resolved; eating/drinking normally
- Residual dizziness with head movement; improving daily
- Walking independently indoors; requests company outside
- Prescribed three-day anti-sickness course completed 03/11
- Today's plan: no restarting/extending anti-sickness tablets without medical review
- Partner asks whether future dizziness always means same illness
Documented home-support and review plan
- Short accompanied outdoor walks; gradually increase activity as tolerated
- Rest in dark room if very dizzy; fluids, sufficient sleep
- No vestibular exercise programme prescribed today
- While dizzy: no driving/cycling/tools/machinery; avoid alcohol
- Explained: balance recovery commonly takes weeks; sometimes longer
- New/different dizziness → assessment; do not assume recurrent neuritis
- GP review booked 12/11; partner invited; worsening → contact GP sooner
- Sudden hearing loss → urgent GP assessment; not typical of neuritis
- Persistent imbalance: consider supervised vestibular rehabilitation at review
Who is reading, and what do they need?
Ms Lahiffe is Mr Kotecha's partner and receives this advice with his consent. Her availability for walks, his outdoor support request and fear of falling favour practical, plain-language guidance. She needs current restrictions and review arrangements rather than a full medication history. His usual independence, earlier illness history, birth date and address need only brief identification or context, where useful.
What to include
Selection is the skill the Content and Conciseness criteria reward. These notes earn their place:
| Case note | Why it belongs |
|---|---|
| Vestibular neuritis; no hearing loss or tinnitus. | Names the assessed condition and provides context for the separate instruction about sudden hearing loss. |
| Vomiting resolved; eating/drinking normally; head-movement dizziness improving daily. | A brief recovery update helps the partner understand the continuing need for support without suggesting complete recovery. |
| Anti-sickness course completed 03/11; no restarting or extending without medical review. | Clarifies the current medication boundary and prevents the completed course being mistaken for ongoing treatment. |
| Short accompanied outdoor walks; gradually increase activity as tolerated. | Gives the partner a practical support role while retaining the limits on activity progression. |
| While dizzy: no driving, cycling, tools or machinery; avoid alcohol. | Preserves every listed restriction affecting everyday safety during recovery. |
| New/different dizziness: assessment; do not assume recurrent neuritis. | Addresses the partner's question without extending today's diagnosis to future episodes. |
| GP review 12/11; partner invited; worsening: contact GP sooner. | Makes the follow-up arrangement actionable and explains when waiting for the appointment is inappropriate. |
| Sudden hearing loss: urgent GP assessment; not typical of neuritis. | Distinguishes a specific urgent reassessment trigger from the expected recovery discussion. |
What to leave out or compress
| Case note | Why it goes |
|---|---|
| Enjoys collecting vintage postcards. | The hobby does not help Ms Lahiffe provide the documented support or arrange review. |
| Partner complained receptionist was unfriendly. | The service complaint does not belong in clinical recovery advice. |
| Remote ankle sprain; fully recovered. | Although superficially relevant to walking, the resolved injury does not explain the current support plan. |
| No known drug allergies. | An allergy entry adds little to partner advice when no new medicine is being prescribed. |
| 01/11 hospital assessment: no focal neurological deficit documented. | Usually omit or compress this earlier finding; it cannot establish the cause of future dizziness. |
A paragraph plan for this case
Open with the purpose, consent and diagnosis, adding only brief illness history or current progress; the documented expectation of weeks, sometimes longer, can frame recovery. Use the middle paragraph for accompanied walks, activity restrictions and the medication boundary, optionally compressing dark-room rest when very dizzy, fluids and sufficient sleep. Close with the complete documented assessment and review instructions together; distinguish any mention of supervised rehabilitation for persistent imbalance at review from exercises prescribed today.
Where candidates slip on this task
- Keep the completed three-day course distinct from today's restriction: no restarting or extending anti-sickness tablets without medical review; do not invent a medicine name or dose.
- Separate short accompanied walks from formal exercises: no vestibular exercise programme was prescribed today, and supervised rehabilitation is only a possibility if imbalance persists at review.
- Keep all reassessment instructions together, including sudden hearing loss; the earlier absence of a documented focal neurological deficit must not become reassurance that future dizziness has the same cause.
No model letter is published here. Write for the named reader from the case notes in the timed editor, then get it marked.
Write it in the timed editor and get marked on the 6 criteria
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Your profession's guide: OET Medicine. Layout and structure: OET letter format.
Questions about this task
Which documented review instructions should be grouped together?
Group the 12 November GP appointment and partner invitation with earlier GP contact for worsening, assessment for new or different dizziness without assuming recurrent neuritis, and urgent GP assessment for sudden hearing loss. Preserve the explanation that sudden hearing loss is not typical of neuritis.
Should the letter prescribe vestibular exercises or promise a recovery deadline?
Neither addition is supported. The notes allow the expectation of weeks, sometimes longer, and consideration of supervised rehabilitation if imbalance persists at review. No exercise programme was prescribed today. The distinction between ordinary activity and supervised rehabilitation also accords with NHS guidance.
Sources
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